database

database, any collection of data, or information, that is specially organized for rapid search and retrieval by a computer. Databases are structured to facilitate the storage, retrieval, modification, and deletion of data in conjunction with various data-processing operations. A database management system (DBMS) extracts information from the database in response to queries. A brief treatment of databases follows. For full treatment, see computer science: Information systems and databases; information processing. A database is stored as...